Grade B+

This book is a sweeping tour of the major interactions between the US and the Middle East. Apparently, nothing has changed. The only way the US can get things done there is by force, it seems. And the US seems to be ambivalent about using it, torn as it is between idealism and real politic. What limits the book is it’s narrative structure. It moves steadily from the Barbary Wars through 9-11 examining the themes of power, faith and fantasy, but it doesn’t offer an overriding interpretive guide for the interaction. Simply that this is how it was. That said, it is a necessary book. A good reminder that try as we may, we ain’t gonna change the Middle East.

by Wendel Berry

Grade A

This is a story of an orphan who ends up the barber of Port William, Kentucky. He watches nearly all the changes of the 20th century from this vantage point, and his experiences and reflections are worth learning from. Berry does get annoyingly preachy, at times, about all the ways are lives are worse by the technological “improvements” of the modern age. However, like most other such complaints, there’s nothing more to be done. Still, I grew to love Port William and hated what these times have done to it. Glad that Berry has brought it–fictionally–back.

by Eugene Peterson

Grade A

This is a fabulous book. Peterson is terrific. I want more, and thankfully I have three of the other books in his series on spiritual theology.

By Francis S. Collins

Grade B+

Grade C

An academic and dull read. Not recommended.

by John Kelly

Grade B

A great book. Could have been shorter if a number of the asides were deleted and if the same story wasn’t retold in each city the plague appeared. Still, worth reading.

by Sarah Vowel

Grade B

This is a nice and funny look at America’s first Puritans. The book nicely links the beliefs of those early years of the nation’s founding to the country’s later history. Well done. It has some serious flaws though. There are no chapters, which seems because the book has no organization. It jumps around here and there and seems to move through the first few years of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. But it jumps around so much there’s no sense of progress. Vowel attempts to overcome this by being funny and witty. It doesn’t completely work. Because of that there is little clear thesis. Still, I finished it in a couple nights’ reading, and it was worth the time.